Connect with us

Raise the Minimum Wage

Currently, the average minimum wage worker makes about
$15,080 per year if she or he is working fulltime (federal minimum wage has
been $7.25/hour since 2009). For a family of two or more that is well below the
federal poverty line. According to Catholic Social Teaching, a living wage is
integral to our understanding of work. Wages must allow workers to provide for
themselves and their families, and yet this is hardly
possible if one is dependent on the current minimum wage.

The Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2013 was introduced in both
houses of Congress in March 2013 and was immediately referred to Committee,
where it has remained ever since. If passed, it would provide America's minimum
wage workers with a raise while boosting the consumer spending that fuels the
economy. Over 30 million workers would receive a raise, and who these workers
are may surprise you: 88% of minimum wage workers are adults over the age of
20, 56% of them are women, and 50% of them are people of color. Forty-three
percent of minimum wage workers have at least some college education. More than
17 million children have a parent who would be affected by the legislation.

If the legislation is passed, it will raise the federal
minimum wage to $10.10/ hour by the year 2015, in three steps of $0.95.
Importantly, it would adjust the minimum wage to keep pace with the rising cost
of living through indexing, a process that 10 states are already using to maintain
the buying power of the minimum wage. The Act would also raise the minimum wage
for tipped workers to approximately 70% of the federal minimum wage.

On September 17, 2013, the Labor Department issued final
rules that extended the federal minimum wage and overtime protections to the
nation's home care workers, which covers hundreds of thousands of low-wage
workers who have never been covered by the minimum wage before.

Christine Owens, Executive Director of the National
Employment Law Project (NELP), issued a statement when the legislation was
introduced in Congress calling for an increase in the minimum wage: "It's
clear what needs to be done. It's time to raise the federal minimum wage --
raise it over time to $10.10 an hour. Boost the guaranteed minimum wage rate
for tipped workers, which has been stuck at $2.13 since 1991. And index the
overall minimum wage to the cost of living." To learn more about the
federal minimum wage, visit our partners at the National Employment Law
Project.

While we wait for action at the federal level, many states
and municipalities are already acting on this critical issue. Beginning January
1, 2014, an estimated 2.5 million workers in the U.S. received a boost in their
paychecks because 13 states raised their minimum wage. That figure, according
to an analysis by the NELP, will have the largest impact in New Jersey, where
11.5 % of the workforce will be helped by the increase. New Jersey’s is also
the largest of the 13 state increases, at 13.79%, bringing their minimum wage
to $8.25. Workers in Washington State will now have the highest state-mandated minimum
wage at $9.32/hr.

Proposals to raise the minimum wage directly address the
country's high levels of income disparity since minimum levels usually set the
stage for other wage increases and most metrics show that wages have stagnated
or declined for millions of working families. One of the major obstacles to our
economic recovery is the growing gap between real wages and productivity, which
has violated the traditional relationship between real wages and consumption.
If the productivity of each worker is rising strongly -- and it has been -- yet
that worker's capacity to purchase is lagging behind -- how does economic
recovery, which relies on growth in spending, sustain itself?

Opponents of raising the federal minimum wage suggest doing
so will be bad for the economy’s recovery, may raise unemployment, and unfairly
burdens businesses. However, a closer look shows those concerns are overstated,
and sometimes plainly false:

According
to economist James Galbraith, raising the minimum wage would raise the
incomes of 28 million Americans. Women would particularly benefit because
they tend to work for lower wages than men.

Putting
more expendable income in the hands of low-income workers, who will spend
that money in the real economy, rather than giving it to the super-wealthy,
who tend to invest it in various financial products, would boost the
economy.

An
increase of a couple dollars per hour or more in the minimum wage will make
huge improvements in the lives of the working poor, perhaps allowing them
to exit the debt treadmill and stand a better chance of eventually rising
into a revitalized middle class.

Arindrajit
Dube, an economist at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, published a
study on December 30, 2013, that maintains that raising the minimum wage
from $7.25 to $10.10/hr. would raise 4.6 million people above the poverty
line.

A higher minimum wage would help mitigate
the abusive, exploitative working practices of a number of employers, who take
advantage of the currently low minimum wage to seek cut-rate help, often from undocumented
immigrants.

Raising the minimum wage would be literally the minimum that
could be done for those who have suffered from the recent economic crisis. It
would be an act of justice.

President Obama supported a raise in the minimum wage in the
State of the Union Address in February 2013, supported the Fair Minimum Wage
Act in March, and made a public statement of support in early December 2013
when the president backed a raise to $10.10/hr. by 2015, after which it would
be indexed to the inflation rate.

The president has clearly stated that raising the minimum
wage would have profoundly positive effects for low-income families without
unduly burdening businesses or raising the unemployment rate. He cited research
showing no detectable employment losses from previous minimum wage increases
and, furthermore, listed numerous large companies that supported the increase,
including Costco and Stride-Rite.

A growing populism among voters is being coordinated by
officials from the White House, labor unions and liberal advocacy groups,
including the National Employment Law Project in January 2014. In a series of
strategy meetings in Washington, they are focusing on two levels: an effort to
raise the minimum wage, which will be pushed by President Obama and congressional
leaders, and a campaign to place state-level minimum wage proposals on the
ballot in states with hotly contested Senate races. The president is planning a
series of speeches across the country focused on improving wages for workers
that will be timed to coincide with congressional voting. Much of the
discussion at these strategy sessions and in the upcoming speeches of the president
focuses on the issue of income disparity. A December 2013 CBS News poll found
64% of independents and 57% of Republicans who said they supported increasing
the minimum wage. More than 70% of self-described
"moderates" also support an increase.

NETWORK will be working with various groups in support of
increasing the federal minimum wage during 2014 and urges others to advocate
strongly for this issue of justice.